Get the characterful sound of analogue tape in your DAW with these throwback plugins
Before the world went digital, records were captured on magnetic tape, which has a particular frequency response and a certain amount of artefacts due to imperfect equipment mechanics and degradation. These sonic characteristics are the result of the physical properties and limitations of the medium, but they also give it a unique quality that has fuelled a resurgence of interest in analogue-style recording in recent years.
As the golden age of tape recedes into the past, a new generation of producers are now looking to capture some of the magic of an era they weren’t even alive for in their mixes. There’s a special feeling that comes with the sound of tape, whether you want to call it lo-fi, retro, vintage or whatever else. Fortunately, plugin developers haven’t been slacking in this department, and there is a wide range of tape emulation plugins on Plugin Boutique that will help you emulate the sound of tape in your DAW.
In this article, we’ve rounded up the 14 best tape emulation plugins to make your decision in choosing a plugin for your needs much easier.
In this article
- Softube Tape
- Excite Audio Lifeline Console
- Universal Audio Verve Analog Machines
- Baby Audio TAIP
- Wavesfactory Cassette
- Caelum Audio Tape Pro
- iZotope Ozone 11
- u-he Satin
- Klevgrand DAW Cassette
- Arturia Tape MELLO-FI
- AudioThing Reels
- Universal Audio Studer A800 Tape Recorder
- Aberrant DSP SketchCassette II
- Black Rooster Audio Magnetite
- Download affordable and free tape plugins with Plugin Boutique
-
FAQs
Our round-up of the best tape emulation plugins
1. Softube Tape
Very accurate and genuine tape simulation plugin for purists.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST, VST3, AU, AAX |
| Price: | £83.66 |
| Get It Here |
One of the features of tape recordings is a pleasing warm saturation that makes everything sound like it’s had a bath in a butter dish. Softube is a developer who have built up a reputation for releasing award-winning software versions of iconic analogue products, and as saturation-based effects are very much their thing, it’s no surprise that Tape is a winner.
The plugin has three tape machine types on board, each precisely modelled on devices with their own distinct character. There are some premium modern features like a mastering grade high shelf filter, stability control and a Dry/Wet knob, but the main selling point for Tape is its realistic analogue sound, which will compare favourably to most alternatives out there. As an added bonus, Tape’s presets were designed by Grammy Award-winning producers Joe Chicarelli and Howard Willing too, so you won’t struggle to find the right sonic flavour.
2. Excite Audio Lifeline Console
All-rounder tape emulation plugin with AI-modelled sound.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST, VST3, AU, AAX, Standalone |
| Price: | £79.00 |
| Get It Here |
Lifeline Console features five modules: Pre-amp, EQ, Compressor, Modulation, and Wear. Focusing on tape-related features, the Modulation module introduces pitch variations akin to tape, vinyl, and cassette, with controls for wow and flutter. The Wear module simulates tape degradation, adding noise, hum, artefacts, and dropouts to replicate the imperfections of tape playback. These modules combine to deliver a range of vintage tape effects, enhancing your tracks with analog warmth and character.
Each module in Lifeline Console also has an Advanced view that gives access to far more controls, giving you a more in-depth tape experience if that’s what you’re after. The plugin has a wide range of presets that can help you instantly cycle through tape tones as well as other electronic circuit imperfections.
3. Universal Audio Verve Analog Machines
Easy-to-use box of emulation tricks – full of tapes, tubes and transmitters.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST, AU, AAX |
| Price: | £199 |
| Get It Here |
This plugin offers ten retro-futuristic effects to infuse your tracks with vibrant analog warmth and character. It also comes in the ‘Essentials’ variant featuring four analog machines – three of which are tape. Each ‘machine’ brings its own character to bear on your signal, and lets you set the depth of its effect.
Designed for modern musicians, producers, and beatmakers, Verve Analog Machines provides a range of tones from tape warmth and tube saturation to extreme distortion.
4. Baby Audio TAIP
Tape emulation that’s been guided by AI.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST, VST3, AU, AAX |
| Price: | £79.00 |
| Get It Here |
When science fiction lovers in the seventies were daydreaming about the artificial intelligence of the 21st century, they probably imagined a dystopian world of sentient robots and supercomputers. One thing they probably didn’t think of was that it would be used to emulate the tape machines of their own era. Baby Audio's TAIP is an AI-powered tape saturator that brings the true sound and behaviour of analog tape into your DAW by emulating a 1971 European tape machine.
Instead of using traditional DSP, TAIP’s AI algorithm deciphers the sonic characteristics that make a tape machine sound the way it does and applies its learnings to new audio. Like most tape emulation plugins, TAIP is quite simple in practice, with a flexible feature set that will allow you to create a custom tape flavour for any scenario. Use it to add musical saturation and glue to drums, instruments, vocals and whatever else you feel like.
5. Wavesfactory Cassette
Versatile cassette plugin with a reasonable price tag and plenty of features.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST, VST3 |
| Price: | £49.00 |
| Get It Here |
While some tape emulation plugins revive the sound of the recording equipment used in professional studios, others concern themselves with a more humble medium: the cassette tape. Cassettes were the most popular audio format of the eighties before CDs arrived on the scene with far superior audio fidelity. However, in today’s pristinely digital world, the retro texture and low fidelity of cassette tapes has become desirable, and Wavesfactory Cassette is one of a growing number of plugins that you can use to achieve it.
Cassette offers four tape types modelled on the main cassette types, which each gives you an altered frequency response as well as a different combination of saturation, compression, hiss and asperity noise (a low-frequency rumble). The plugin’s interface is minimal and modelled on the look of a classic tape deck, but its set of controls enables you to modify the effect in quite a precise way.
6. Caelum Audio Tape Pro
A feature-heavy tape simulation for those who want to go deep.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST, AU, AAX |
| Price: | £40.00 |
| Get It Here |
We’ve covered a variety of different tape emulation plugins so far in this round-up, but most have either specialised in a specific area of the medium, whether that’s recording studio tape equipment or compact cassettes. Tape Pro is a multi-effect plugin that allows you to choose between Micro Cassette, Cassette, Semi-Professional and Professional tape impulse responses, making it an excellent option for both vintage effects and more subtle tape emulation scenarios.
As well as the tape Response Types, there are also six Saturation Types to choose from (Tape, Digital, Rectify, Half-Rectify, Sine and Smooth) which can be modulated heavily. All of this contributes to a large sonic palette, with a lot of potential for creative effects. Add to that the Wow/Flutter, Noise and a pretty flexible Delay section, and what you get is a comprehensive tape emulation plugin that does more than just sound like tape.
7. iZotope Ozone 11
Vintage Tape module sits alongside many other mastering-orientated processors.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST3, AU, AAX |
| Price: |
Elements, £46.00 Standard, £186.00 Advanced, £375.00 |
| Get It Here: Elements, Standard, Advanced |
An all-in-one advanced mastering suite that can help you to craft fine-tuned and polished projects, you can tell that Ozone is one of Massachusetts audio technology giant iZotope’s flagship products simply by checking how many iterations there’s been. Ozone 11 comes with a host of new features from the previous version, including Stem Focus, a Clarity module, and Assistive Vocal Balance.
Ozone’s Vintage Tape module delivers all the frequency colouration, saturation and phase effects of tape. Inspired by the innovative Studer A810 tape machine that was originally introduced in 1982, the Vintage Tape module carries the same excellent frequency response even at the critical high and low-frequency range limits where tape traditionally doesn’t fare so well. Clearly, Ozone 11 is a plugin built for much more than tape emulation but Vintage Tape is definitely a welcome addition to its arsenal.
8. u-he Satin
Absolute class in a plugin form. Only for those whose waveforms are worthy.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST, VST3, AU |
| Price: | €129 |
| Get It Here |
You might know Berlin-based audio software company u-he for their luxurious virtual analogue synth Diva, which picked up a bundle of awards and five-star reviews for its stellar sound quality. The fact that Satin was developed by the same team is definitely a good thing, as it manages to capture the essence of magnetic tape recording and translate it into the digital world in a similar fashion to their much-lauded synth.
Satin charts a path through the history of tape technology with a mix-and-match emulation approach that covers everything from top-of-the-line multi-track consoles to humble cassette decks. That’s not all though, there’s a 2 or 4-tap delay and a true tape flanger to play around with, as well as full control over all the good and bad characteristics of tape. Satin’s Group panel also allows you to control up to eight instances of the plugin at once, a really handy feature when you inevitably start spraying it over all your tracks.
9. Klevgrand DAW Cassette
A no-fuss, fun cassette plugin for anyone who wants the sound of portability.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST, VST3, AU, AAX |
| Price: | €35.44 |
| Get It Here |
If you’re looking for straight-up cassette tape emulation and nothing more, Klevgrand’s DAW Cassette is the plugin for you. Klevgrand released DAW Cassette as the VST version of a web app experiment that was met with a hugely positive online response, and it doesn’t mess around. The plugin’s interface is super minimal, with an illustrated style that immediately feels warm and old school, and that’s before you even get to how it sounds.
Whether you’re looking for a dash of vibes or a wobbly pile of scuzz, DAW Cassette has you covered with three tape modes (Normal, Chrome and Metal) and some simple controls to customise the effect. There’s a four-band peak EQ, a choice of noise types, and Tape, Head and Motor quality knobs. Flip the plugin over on its back and you also get a Tape Head angle slider to introduce some phase issues.
10. Arturia Tape MELLO-FI
A tape emulation inspired specifically by the sound of the Mellotron.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST, AU, AAX, NKS |
| Price: | €99.00 |
| Get It Here |
After releasing Mellotron V, a software recreation of the legendary Mellotron keyboard that had a tape playback mechanism under every key, Arturia decided to build the fluttering, grainy and compressed sound of the instrument into an effect plugin. The result is Tape MELLO-FI, a feature-packed tape emulator that blends the past and the present.
With a simple interface that’s straight out of a classic studio, Tape MELLO-FI provides all your lo-fi needs within seconds, from subtle analog fatness to dizzy pitch flutters. The Preamp section allows you to add crispy distortion, with colour determined by the Tone knob and grain texture by the Noise control. There’s a spinning tape reel that can be adjusted to different speeds, Flutter/Wow, Wear and Mechanics dials to season your tape recipe to taste and a 12dB low- and high-pass filter section to boot.
11. AudioThing Reels
A no-nonsense tape emulation plugin with creative tape delay effects too.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST, VST3, AU, AAX, CLAP |
| Price: | £49.96 |
| Get It Here |
This reel-to-reel tape emulation plugin is a simple, cheap and effective way to take the edge off a sterile, digital signal, with plenty of settings to determine exactly how your virtual tape will perform – Tape Type, Tape Speed, Ducking, Harshness, Wow and Flutter, Crosstalk, Hiss and Motor.
But Reels goes further than just the basics, giving you an entire Echo module that can be used to impart some vintage tape delay, with control over the Time, Feedback, Lowpass cutoff and delay Level. It’s not a full-on Roland Space Echo, but there are creative tape possibilities that go beyond the normal ‘flavour’ enhancements of many tape plugins – and the price is right as well!
12. Universal Audio Studer A800 Tape Recorder
A trusted emulation of a bona fide studio classic.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST3, AU, AAX, LUNA |
| Price: | €413.01 |
| Get It Here |
For over three decades, the Studer A800 has been a favourite among artists and engineers alike. The unit has been prized for its warm analog sound, robust low-end, and overall presence. Universal Audio's Studer A800 Tape Recorder plugin authentically replicates this iconic machine, modelled by the company’s renowned DSP engineers, and now available natively to all – not just to those with UA’s own proprietary hardware.
Universal Audio’s A800 offers the complete electronic signal paths of the original A800, multiple tape speed options, and four popular tape formulas. Features include noise, EQ, and bias controls for a broad range of tape textures. The plugin is available in UAD Native and Apollo Realtime/UAD-2 versions, making it versatile for various setups.
13. Aberrant DSP SketchCassette II
Creative lighthearted tape sim that’s still full of features.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST3, AU, AAX |
| Price: | £27.95 |
| Get It Here |
SketchCassette II brings the nostalgic sound of four-track cassette recorders to your digital setup. Featuring 12 unique tape type and quality profiles, it offers a wide range of lo-fi effects from subtle warbling to extreme degradation.
Key features here include three tape types (Type I, Type II and Type IV), two tape saturation models (A and B), adjustable tape hiss, dropouts, wow and flutter controls, noise-reduction encoding, and a custom preset system. Ideal for adding vintage cassette character to your tracks, SketchCassette II is a versatile tool for creative production and even for mixing.
14. Black Rooster Audio Magnetite
Solid magnetic tape recorder emulation without the baggage of emulating one unit.
| Platforms: | Mac and PC |
| Formats: | VST3, AU, AAX |
| Price: | £39.00 |
| Get It Here |
Not modelled after a particular tape recorded but apparently more a homage to the units in general, Magnetite features authentic tape saturation, adjustable wow and flutter, and NAB pre- and de-emphasis EQs. Users can dial in the desired warmth and saturation using the recording gain knob. Optimised for high performance with SSE2 instruction set and auto-adjusted oversampling, Magnetite delivers transparent sound with minimal CPU load. Ideal for adding analog warmth and depth to your mixes.
Download affordable and free tape plugins with Plugin Boutique
At Plugin Boutique, we offer a huge range of tape emulation plugins alongside other types of VST, Audio Units and AAX plugin tools. With a wide range of developers represented, and giving you a single user account with ‘one login for all your plugins’, it’s a great place to get tape emulation plugins, saturation, channel strip and delay plugins.
FAQs
What are tape emulation plugins?
Tape emulation plugins replicate the sound and behaviour of analogue tape recorders. They simulate the warmth, saturation, compression, and other characteristics of recording to tape.
What are tape emulation plugins used for?
They are used to add analog warmth, colour, and subtle distortion to digital recordings, enhancing the overall perceived sound quality and adding vintage character.
At what stage of audio production should tape emulation plugins be used?
Tape emulation plugins can be used during mixing and mastering to add analogue warmth and cohesion to individual tracks or the entire mix.
Can you use free tape emulation plugins?
Yes, there are free tape emulation plugins available. While they may not offer all the features of premium versions, they can still provide quality tape-like effects.